Enlarge image
Tourists take in the panoramic view looking east from Crown Point in the
Columbia River Gorge. The success of the Columbia River Highway inspired
Oregon leaders to improve many other state and local roads in the 1920s.
(Postcards, Accession 88A-057, OSA)

Building the StateEconomic challenges
While the 1920s "roared" through much of the American economy,
in many ways they only whimpered in Oregon. World War I heated
up Oregon's economy with demand for the production of ships, lumber,
grain,
and other
materials. But in its wake, the state's economy faltered as farming
slumped and orders to shipyards and lumber mills declined precipitously.
Housing
starts dropped, stock market speculation increased, banks grew more
unsteady. Looking for brighter horizons, 50,000 Oregonians left the
state after
World
War I.

Oregon's Good Roads movement
One of the impediments to economic prosperity was the state's transportation
system. Certainly, Oregon had a network of railroad, stage, and
steamboat routes, but its road system could only be described as
primitive.
A spectacular exception was the just completed Columbia River Highway,
which provided
both inspiration and impetus to push modern road building forward
on
a statewide basis. After passing the nation's first gas tax to
pay for roads
in 1919, Oregon moved at full speed to construct a network of modern
paved and concrete roads. The campaign to "Get Oregon Out of the Mud" began
to pay dividends as highway projects such as the Pacific Highway
and later the Oregon Coast Highway captured the imaginations of wandering
Oregonians
and Americans. Meanwhile, great efforts went into enhancing a network
of farm to market roads linking agricultural communities with railroads
and
other shipping resources.

Social Trends
Americans indulged in the ironic combination of excess and Prohibition
during the 1920s, all in search of what President Harding called "normalcy." Symbolic
of the decade, alcoholic beverages were illegal but plentiful at the
same time, leading to the rise of organized crime and other distortions of the social fabric.

Actor and filmmaker Charlie Chaplin.

New freedoms and an advertising age
As it struggled economically in the 1920s, Oregon also experienced
the excitement and fears of the tumultuous social and cultural times.
Changes hastened by World War I expressed themselves in American culture
as old traditions waned. Many women, newly empowered by the right to
vote on a national level, broke social constraints on dress and behavior.
They "bobbed" their hair, discarded their corsets, wore flapper
dresses, listened to jazz music, danced the Charleston, and openly
smoked cigarettes. Many demanded easier and more equitable divorces
along with access to birth control.

Movie idols such as Rudolph Valentino,
Clara Bow, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and Charlie Chaplin captivated
film audiences. The film
plots often followed classic themes that reflected ideals of society:
farm boy conquers city while remaining pure; poor boy struggles and
saves to achieve wealth and happiness; nice boy meets and marries rich
girl. Sports combined with the booming advertising profession to create
heroes such as Babe Ruth in baseball and Jack Dempsey in boxing. Radio
broadcasts and ownership grew rapidly. Automobiles, made much more
useful by the improving roads, provided Oregonians with a level of
physical independence they had never known. The world was in many ways
a very exciting place.

Darker currents
Yet troubling aspects of the society dampened the exuberance for many.
The great social experiment of Prohibition led to underground economies,
increased organized crime, and an erosion of respect for government.
Labor strife boiled over at regular intervals, sometimes leading
to violence. Fear and distrust of American radicals as well as foreigners
grew while Bolsheviks were seen in the shadows of society.

Enlarge image
Eastern Oregon State Hospital, opened in 1913, was one of several
state institutions in which residents were sterilized. (Photographs,
Box 1, Board
of Control
Records, OSA)

The Twenties also saw growth in the application of Social Darwinism
principles to state institutions. The eugenics movement blossomed in
Oregon, leading
to the violation of the rights of many of its disabled and incarcerated citizens.
Specifically, a 1923 state law provided for "the sterilization of all
feeble-minded, insane, epileptics, habitual criminals, moral degenerates
and sexual perverts who are a menace to society...."

The Oregon Eugenics
Board regularly made decisions to sterilize residents of the Oregon State
Hospital, Oregon State Penitentiary, Eastern Oregon State
Hospital, and the State Institution for the Feeble-Minded (later Fairview
Hospital and Training Center). Officials initially used the law to punish
people
for having homosexual sex. And, for years they also favored castration
over vasectomies
as a means of sterilization. The board reasoned that the gene pool would
be
stronger if "defective" individuals were not allowed to breed.
Sterilization was also thought to have a "calming" effect on
individuals. Until reforms in 1967, sterilization often was used as a condition
of release
from
state institutions or to punish people who acted out. The board was finally
abolished in 1983.(1)

The rise of the Klan
Perhaps the most menacing trend during the decade was the rise of anti-Catholic
bigotry and racist vigilante movements, which established a firm foothold
in the state. The Ku Klux Klan formed chapters in Portland, Eugene, Medford,
Roseburg,
and other Oregon communities. Its members donned robes and paraded through
streets igniting crosses and intimidating Catholics and minorities. In
1921 Medford Klan organizers perpetrated "necktie-parties" (near lynchings)
against two African Americans suspected of bootlegging as well as
against a piano dealer who had filed a lawsuit against a Klan member. Deploring
the incidents, Governor Ben Olcott declared that:

"Oregon needs no masked night riders, no invisible empire, to control
her affairs.... The true spirit of Americanism resents bigotry, abhors
secret machinations
and terrorism, and demands that those who speak for and in her cause
speak openly, with their faces to the sun."

But the Klan's rise
in the early 1920s carried considerable political clout. In 1923,
the Klan-dominated Oregon Legislature passed an Alien
Land Law
that barred Japanese land ownership. The new law came on the heels
of a U.S. Supreme
Court ruling that Japanese people could not be naturalized citizens.
And, the law passed despite the fact that Japanese aliens held
less than
one percent
of Oregon land in 1920. Similar laws passed in Washington, California,
and many other states.(2)

The Ku Klux Klan enjoyed a warm reception from many Oregon communities
in the 1920s as Catholics and minorities suffered both blatant and
subtle bigotry.

The organization also endorsed a ballot measure to require children
of ages 8 to 16 to go to public schools. While other reasons were given,
a primary impetus of the measure was to wipe out Catholic schools in
the state. Approximately seven percent of Oregon students attended private
schools, many of which were Catholic. Most of the state's newspaper editors
either supported the measure or remained neutral.

Turning the Progressive
tool of direct legislation into a reactionary weapon, supporters convinced
Oregon voters to pass the compulsory school
measure by a vote of 115,506 to 103,685 in the November 1922 election.
They also managed to get Walter Pierce, who supported the measure,
elected governor, replacing Ben Olcott, a staunch opponent.

The Oregon
Legislature decided not to enforce the measure until the courts ruled
on it. Finally, the United States Supreme Court in "Pierce
vs. Society of Sisters" unanimously ruled in 1925 that the bill
was an unconstitutional violation of parents' rights to send their
children to schools of their own choice. By the time of the ruling,
the Klan largely
had faded from prominence, a victim of internal conflicts, corruption
rumors, and the second thoughts of Oregonians.(3)

The tired end of the
frenetic decade saw the event that precipitated the next major
era of American history, the Great Depression. The
stock market crash of 1929 was more of a symptom of the underlying
excesses
and weaknesses of the economy than it was a cause. But it served
as a wake up call for the despairing times ahead.